What if they both win?
Will the All Blacks prevail by virtue of defending their crown or should the country toast the Black Caps for creating history in winning a cup they have never etched their name on?
Maybe the judges will opt for diplomacy to declare joint winners but, I dare say, that'll be like kissing one's sister.
But, as irresistible as it may be, let's focus on this year's Halberg Awards to be handed out on February 11.
Deservedly in came the Auckland City football team for their eye-catching performance at the Fifa Club World Cup in Morocco last month.
Late they were but, again, bouquets to judges for keeping the door open for City who should have been considered in an awards ceremony to honour the achievements of New Zealand athletes in the 2014 calendar year.
The footballers, who play the Hawke's Bay United at Park Island, Napier, in the ASB Premiership summer national league this Sunday, are up against the Kiwis rugby league Four Nations champions, Olympic champion rowers Hamish Bond and Eric Murray, New Zealand men's cycling team sprinters and the men's 49er class team yachtsmen.
You see, to single one out as winners comes down solely to the judges' perception, akin to a ritual similar to people picking out a horse or pony on its looks and demeanour in a showing competition last week in Hastings.
The Kiwis are Four Nations champions but does beating the Kangaroos or England constitute the world?
Maybe the cyclists should win because it can't be easy to prevail in a code tainted with doping.
Perhaps the judges may factor in who puts New Zealand out there in the global context in claiming bragging rights.
The "coach of the year" category brings its own share of brain storming.
Auckland City coach Ramon Tribulietx is conspicuous in his absence.
It's like ordering a Hawaiian pizza minus the pineapple - the fruit juice taste is fine, though.
I advocated the selection of Tribulietx as All Whites and Wellington Phoenix coach several years ago after seeing what he could do with Auckland City at the national league level.
Anthony Peden (cycling), Gary Hay (rowing), Gordon Walker (canoeing), Stephen Kearney (rugby league) and Steve Hansen (rugby) are in.
Kearney is in despite making Tohu Harris a sacrificial lamb to accommodate Sonny Bill Williams' abhorrent U-turn at the Rugby League World Cup.
The other oddity is Hansen because his team aren't in the running.
Peden, Hay and Walker's codes and athletes are in the equation.
It can't be because Tribulietx is a Spaniard that he is left out. Peden was born in Australia and Hay in Zimbabwe.
Somehow the football coach missed the overriding theme of thriving athlete/team equals astute mentoring.
Before the arrival of Ernie Merrick at Phoenix, this country's football coaching stocks were grossly limited.
Tribulietx was the exception.
If the All Whites created a stir for winning the supreme award with a rash of stalemates at the 2010 Fifa World Cup then the architect of victories over Moroccan, African and North American club football champions on a global stage must warrant a few warm fuzzies in the country's premier glitzy awards night.
Tayler, of course, captured the headlines not long after with his resignation from the Halberg judging panel because he couldn't stomach the team choice.
That takes me to the sportswoman of the year with world champions in single Hawke's Bay sculler Emma Twigg, world champion Lisa Carrington (canoeing), Valerie Adams (athletics) and professional golfer Lydia Ko.
For me, it'll be hard to get past the youngest person ever to win a pro tour event and win an LPGA Tour event.
The 17-year-old was the world's best female amateur for 130 weeks and in that unpaid status didn't miss a cut in 25 pro tourneys - that was in 2013.
Last year she was world No 2 with a victory in the season-ending Tour Championship and a $1.5 million purse to boot.
The judges may have thought: "Wow, a fantastic ambassador flying the Kiwi flag single-handedly in a world-acclaimed arena."
Adams does that, too, but in a code that is as tainted as cycling has been for the past decade.
Here's my 50c worth.
Why not Twigg?
Sure it took her a decade to clinch a world title but what a meaningful message to put out there to the budding talents that good things take time.
Many would have quit after five years but Twigg eventually found traction with Hay.
Somehow it seems the Bay sculler's biggest award is in the hands of Rowing New Zealand who should cut out the politics and give her every opportunity to take her success to the Rio Olympics next year.
For someone who has sacrificed so much of her time for her country, she deserves to have time and space to develop a career as she approaches the crossroads of life's other challenges at the age of 27.
In the sportsman category, Steven Adams has some of Ko's attributes - but time will tell.
Of the emerging talent, all the best to Waipukurau teenage cyclist Regan Gough.
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